By Timothy Kudo
Daily Bruin Staff
Mediation between the university and the union for academic
student employees ended without a contract with the union claiming
the UC reneged on agreements.
UC officials deny the allegations, which came Tuesday, saying
both sides had agreed that there were still issues that need to be
ironed out.
The unions, which are affiliated with the United Auto Workers,
have also said it is prepared to strike at a “time when
it’s most disruptive to the university,” such as the
end of the quarter as it has in previous strikes when TAs, readers
and tutors are called on for help with finals and in grading.
The university denies it reneged on its negotiations. Brad
Hayward, a UC spokesman, said that on April 25, UC President
Richard Atkinson made agreements with the union in a four-hour
session on “general” issues and specifics were going to
be ironed-out in later negotiations.
“The bargaining teams of both parties are in
communication,” Hayward said. “Certainly, no one wants
to see a strike.”
Union representatives, however, said the agreements the
president made finalized the contract, but when the two sides met
the next day the university backed out on those issues.
“We were astounded. We were outraged. We’re like,
“˜What’s going on here?” said Kristen Guzman, a
member of the unions’ bargaining team and UCLA graduate
student. “We don’t get it.”
“Why is it that their staff thinks they can vacate
commitments made by their top official?” she continued.
“If there ever was any sort of example of bad faith
bargaining, this is it.”
The union and the university were in a mediation period brokered
just before a scheduled UC-wide strike at the end of winter
quarter.
During the following negotiations, Marty Morgenstern, director
of the state Department of Personnel Administration, mediated the
dispute.
In a statement released Tuesday Morgenstern made no mention of
the union’s claims but did say, “When we met with UC
President Atkinson last week, I came away hopeful that an agreement
would be reached shortly.”
“I expect that direct negotiations will resume and an
agreement eventually will be reached,” he added.
But State Senate President Pro Tempore John Burton, who brokered
the mediation period and held the meeting between the union and
Atkinson in his office, expressed through a spokesman, his
disappointment at what he said was the UC staff’s attempt to
scuttle the negotiation process.
“Overall, (Burton) thinks the leadership of the university
wants this resolved,” said Dave Sebeck, Burton’s
spokesman. “He’s hopeful that they will move on it
quickly.”
Though the union has said it is planning a major strike, Hayward
said if the union’s one-day strike earlier this quarter is an
example, then the university is not overly concerned.
Turnout for past strikes has affected a limited number of
discussion sections and has largely consisted of North Campus
students.
Currently, Hayward said the UC would like to schedule more
bargaining dates, but according to Christian Sweeney, a
representative with the union at UC Berkeley, since a contract
agreement was imminent, the union feels that extensive amounts of
time at the bargaining table aren’t necessary.
“We want to meet with the university, but we need to do
that on an expedited timeline,” Sweeney said.
Both sides said that negotiations may begin again, but each side
in the dispute now has an opportunity to go to the Public
Employment Relations Board, the state agency which regulates
employment disputes in the public sector, to have an impasse
declared, according to Robert Thompson, deputy general counsel for
PERB.
Were impasse to be declared, the situation would be referred to
the state Mediation and Conciliation Service, which would assign a
mediator to meet with them.
If the two are still unable to reach a contract, the case goes
back to PERB and a fact finding session will occur in which a
neutral third party will issue a report on the status of the
negotiations.
After that, Thompson said, the two parties are free to use
“economic weapons” against each other.
During spring quarter of last year, the Student Association of
Graduate Employees/UAW became the exclusive bargaining agent for
TAs, readers and tutors at UCLA. At other UC campuses, graduate
students voted similarly and elected unions to represent them in
contract negotiations with the university.
Since that time, the union and the university have been in
contract negotiations, culminating in the strike planned for winter
quarter. The day the strike was planned, Burton negotiated the
mediation period, which was extended past its original April 19
deadline to April 26.